On the record
I say secret tribunals, and secret instructions, because, to the great body of the people, whose rights are at stake, they are secret to all practical intents and purposes.
Said by
Lysander Spooner
Source
gutenberg.orgLysander Spooner: “I say secret tribunals, and secret instructions, because, to the great body of the people, whose rights are at stake…”
Editor's note · Context
Spooner emphasizes that the workings of the courts are hidden from the general populace.
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More from Lysander Spooner
They do not tell us that all liberty and order would be destroyed, that society itself would go to pieces, and man go back to barbarism, if it were not for the care, and supervision, and protection, they lavish upon us.
They do not tell us that they have established infallible supreme courts, to whom they refer all questions as to the legality of their acts, and that they do nothing that is not sanctioned by these courts.
In short, they acknowledge themselves hostes humani generis: enemies of the human race.
They neither ask, nor expect, any mercy, if they should ever fall into the hands of honest men.